There have been comments here and all over the media about the peesent "immigration situation" being unprecedented in terms of numbers, and therefore a "crisis". This is statistical bullsh** We aren't going through anything this country hasn't seen or handled perfectly well before.
Maybe a couple real numbers will help make the point (and cut through the usual Republican obfuscation and the MSM's unquestioning, unresearched repetition of same).
In the 2000 census, the total population of the US was 281,421,906.00.
The total number of foreign born citizens actually counted (though this term technically encompasses a sophisticated statistical estimate) was: 31,107,889.00.
This number includes citizen and non citizens (resident aliens; persons on extended visa; diplomats and undocumented persons).
Some of the Bureau's statisticians argue that a "residual number" of about 9,000,000 should be factored into the foreign-born count to adjust for the difficulty of recording undocumented persons (and for their sometimes seasonal residence).
Given this data -- if you look only at the official numbers for foreign born individuals in the United States as a percentatge of total population, the result is approximately 11%; if you add the "residual number" to the foreign born total, the result is 14.25%
By contrast, in 1910, the total population of the country was 92,228,426. Foreign born individuals accounted for 13,515,886.
To the best of my knowledge the 1910 data and accompanying literature does not contain any "residual number" to account for efforts to avoid counting by Chinese or Latino immigrants, both of whom had recently been the subject of restrictive entry laws.
But even assuming the accuracy of the 1910 foreign-born data, the resulting percentage of foreign born individuals commputes to approximately 14.65%.
Thus, though all numbers involved are now larger, we are merely near an all-time high in terms of foreign born persons as a percentage of the American population. And I think the history is that we did pretty well absorbing the immigrant population of 1880-1920 into our society.
In other words, setting aside the legal/illegal issue, what crisis really exists here, except in the mind of Karl Rove and the racists who make up the national Republican leadership? The people who are coming here -- with and without documents -- are being drawn here because of economic opportunity, and the promise of a standard of living better than that of many of their countries of origin. They live and work-- both in the public and underground economies. If there is any fundamental difference between the situation faced by this country in the heyday of immigration, I'd like to know what it is.
Yet the Republicans say there is a "crisis." Well, Brutus was an honorable guy, too, I guess. This whole this is Rove-sh** I mean, hey, if the A-rab thing is running low on air, we might as well invent a new "Other" to hate and fear. And by golly, a lot of those faces on the streets the last couple weeks were ...... brown. How convenient.
But facts don't lie, even if the MSM does. There is no crisis. There is nothing going on here that hasn't gone on before; and nothing going on that isn't the lifeblood of this country.